East Asian Insurance Day for 2023
October,2023
The EAIC is one of the biggest international insurance conferences, which was founded in 1962 with the aim of furthering and developing international collaboration in the field of insurance.
The EAIC was first convened on October 18th and subsequently became the East Asian Insurance Day after the 23rd EAIC in 2006 designated the day as a way to help the public gain a better understanding of the role of insurance in East Asia.
The member cities of the EAIC have been leading various cross-regional promotional activities focusing on insurance that reflect the situation in each country. As part of this initiative, the Life Insurance Association of Japan (LIAJ) would like to deliver a message from Mr. Masayuki Tanaka, the General Secretary of the East Asian Insurance Congress (EAIC) on the occasion of the East Asia Insurance Day.
EAIC Bandar Seri Begawan Declaration adopted on 2nd August 2006
We, the EAIC executive board and the chief delegates, had decided to designate October 18th as the East Asian Insurance Day with the purpose of promoting the role and importance of insurance, as well as the activities of the EAIC in each region on the occasion of the 23rd EAIC held in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei in 2006. The day is also a symbolic day when the 1st EAIC was held in Tokyo in 1962.
EAIC's key activities
Since 1962, the EAIC has been held every other year and the 31st EAIC for 2024 is scheduled for Hong Kong.
For 2026, the conference is scheduled to be held in Tokyo, and the life insurance industry in Japan will mainly work on preparing the conference.
Message from the EAIC General Secretary
Mr. Masayuki Tanaka
The EAIC General Secretary
I would like to deliver a message on the occasion of the East Asia Insurance Day for 2023.
October 18th is a memorable day when the 1st EAIC was held in Tokyo in 1962. The foundation of the EAIC was born out of the close and personal relationship between Mr. E.S. Sevilla, an officer of National Life in the Philippines, and Mr. Taizo Fukumuro who later became the first Managing Director of FALIA, as their idea of holding an international conference in Asia that shared the knowledge of social insurance systems of neighboring countries and enhancing closer relationships and mutual understanding between countries took hold. Ever since, the EAIC has developed into one of the biggest international insurance conferences in East Asia, which originally began based on a personal friendship between two individuals, and is very unique because the hosting countries rotate among its sponsor residing cities in East Asia as a way to ensure continuity by eliminating individual political and religious interests that might interfere with how the conference is arranged and organized.
The East Asia Insurance Day was established during the 23rd EAIC with an aim to promote common insurance systems across East Asian countries, and to enhance insurance literacy by encouraging educational activities throughout the region based on local demand. While steady efforts such as disseminating information regarding the insurance system through the media and providing lectures at universities have contributed to improved literacy in these countries, the LIAJ has also contributed byline articles for several publications in and outside Japan, and has provided EAIC related information on its website.
The EAIC had been held every other year in East Asian countries such as Tokyo, Manila, Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore, Macau, Bandar Seri Begawan, and Hong Kong. However, the 30th (2020) Congress was postponed for the first time due to COVID-19. In 2022, the EAIC executive board agreed online to hold an online conference for the first time in its history to avoid another postponement on the 60th anniversary of the EAIC since 1962. The conference covered topics including impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, global warming, population aging, Digital Transformation (DX) and Customer Experience (CX), providing an outlook for 40 years to come. Being supported by the network and website of the Asia Insurance Review, the official media partner of the EAIC, I believe that this 60th anniversary EAIC was able to provide broad discussions involving the overall insurance industry, including life insurance, non-life insurance, and reinsurance.
As the insurance industry reaches a turning point, insurance companies are expected to play a role in providing not only “protection”, which is to reduce the underlying risks, but also in providing “prevention”, which is to improve people’s quality of life (QOL) by preventing accidents, diseases and viruses, as well as promoting healthy living styles. As many companies have been incorporating SDGs into their management philosophy, insurance companies, which play a role in complementing social insurance, are expected to take a role in solving such social problems as well. From a global point of view, assessment reporting on climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem services, for example the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) are becoming common, demonstrating that a higher level of global warming and the deterioration of natural resources undermine human well-being significantly. It will be extremely important for neighboring countries in Asia to further exchange information during the EAIC, to raise awareness about environmental and social issues, and to respond to this paradigm shift on an insurance industry level. I sincerely hope that as the East Asia Insurance Day becomes more widely known, insurance literacy in each country will deepen, contributing to the development of the entire Asian region.